Phantom Faces
by Eponine G
Summary: Oliver Twist decides to visit the phantoms of the past.


Phantom Faces  
  
  
  
It was dark and gloomy just as he remembered.  
  
Oliver stumbled over fallen beams and made his way over the odd broken floorboard and looked around the devastation that had once been the magnificent Jacob's Island.  
  
He could still hear the laughter of the boys as they gathered around the now long gone table as they recollected their triumphs of the day. He could still hear Fagin's sinister laughter as he chided the boys for not doing any better on the days pickings.  
  
He could here Bulleyes barking as Bill Sikes entered the room. Sikes shouting at Fagin and hitting her. Her laughter, her sobbing. He heard all the phantoms in the darkness.  
  
A gentle hand on his shoulder brought Oliver back to present day.  
  
"Are you alright Oliver?"  
  
"I.yes.it's just.there are so many memories here"  
  
After 5 years Oliver had decided to confront the ghosts that so often haunted his dreams.  
  
Fagin's evil smile, Bill's brutal fists, Nancy's sad eyes.  
  
"Would you like a tour?" he said with mock enthusiasm.  
  
"Oh why sir that would be delightful" she said with mock airs, but with real interest, wanting to see a glimpse of his past.  
  
Fist he showed her the main room, not that there was much of it, but he told her a few stories, his first encounter with Fagin, his first (and last) taste of gin.  
  
Then to a small room of off the main hall, where Fagin used to sleep, and where he had first seen his half brother Monks.  
  
It tugged at Rose's heart to see the pain in his eyes, to hear the agony in his voice but she listened as any good aunt, and friend would, wanting to help him with the pain.  
  
Oliver came to some stairs and hesitated.  
  
"This is where." he faltered then forced himself to say "This is where she was killed by him"  
  
"Oh Ollie! You don't have to show me that part, shall we go home?"  
  
"No I want to see it, I want to say goodbye properly."  
  
So they made their way up the stairs, each one creaked in protest and as they reached the top Oliver gingerly pushed open the door, half expecting Fagin to bid him welcome and force the book about hangings into his hand once more.  
  
To their surprise the room was lived in. "Squatters no doubt" He commented to Rose.  
  
"Who on earth would live here? The whole of London must of known that the brutal murder took place here, who would live here after that?"  
  
"Desperate times call for desperate measures."  
  
The voice made them both jump and they both turned to see a woman, not young, yet not old, just aged by the hard life she'd had to lead no doubt.  
  
She had a scar that started above her left eye, ran through the eye, causing it to be permanently closed and then trailed down her check and ended in line with her mouth.  
  
"I'm .I'm sorry we didn't realise that someone.." Rose faltured, she could see nothing past the horrific scar on the woman's face.  
  
"That some one lived here" finished Oliver with a slight quiver in his voice.  
  
"No problem, it's not like I shout from the rooftops that I live here."  
  
The woman slipped past Rose, in the room, she was dreadfully thin, and had a sickly tint of grey to her skin.  
  
She sat in a tattered chair in the far corner of the room, feet propped up against an equally tattered bed, she gazed towards the window above the bed, deep in thought.  
  
"Oliver?"  
  
Rose's voice brought the woman back to reality.  
  
"Oliver you've gone quiet pale! Are you quite alright?"  
  
"Yes I. I'm fine, Rose would you mind waiting in the carriage I wish to speak to this young lady"  
  
Rose looked confused but complied all the same and made her way down the stairs and out of the Jacob Island haunts.  
  
"Carriage? We have gone up in the world! How are you Pippin?"  
  
"It is you!" Oliver didn't know weather to laugh or cry  
  
"It is indeed, who were you expecting? The Queen?"  
  
"But you.you were killed Mr. Sikes.. he"  
  
Oliver stopped when she saw the pain in her one good eye at the mention of his name.  
  
"Is he alive?"  
  
"No." she answered quietly "Only in here" she raised a hand to her heart, "And here" then to here head.  
  
Nancy regarded the now young man who once stood in fear as she protected him with her very life.  
  
Oliver regarded the woman who had led him from this life, who had once had laughter in here eyes but now only had sorrow.  
  
He moved forward and sat on the bed, disturbing the dust.  
  
"I wouldn't sit there, for fear of ruining your best suit" she said in her mother-like tone.  
  
"Oh this is just casual it-"He held his tongue as he realised what a snob he sounded.  
  
"I mean, a little dirt is nothing compared to seeing your smile again"  
  
"Blimey with a mouth like that you must have a different girl on your arm every day!"  
  
He laughed, the sound filling the empty room, almost bringing a light into it.  
  
"No, I'm being educated at the moment Mr. Brownlow-"  
  
"Ah Brownlow. Who knew one man could destruct so many lives." Bitterness filled her voice.  
  
"Nancy. if I could of told you the outcome, I would of asked you never to do it."  
  
If I could of told you the outcome, Nolly, I still would of done it! By one person walking out of here and going on to do good things shows that the whole world has not been corrupted by evil yet"  
  
"You really believe that?"  
  
"I hope so, if I didn't what was the point?"  
  
"After Sikes.." there was that pained look again "After he came back to you what happened?"  
  
"Well he came back, shouted at me a bit, threw me about a bit, then he, well he hit me with the butt of his gun." She gingerly touched the jagged scar on her face "But he didn't finish the job."  
  
"I guess he wasn't inhumane after all."  
  
"Wasn't he?"  
  
She lapsed into silence, wallowing in her dark memories.  
  
"I miss them" the statement was made to no one in particular, but broke the silence all the same.  
  
"You miss them? After what they did?!"  
  
"They were my family, he was my life"  
  
"You still have a life Nancy."  
  
"That's so like you pippin, grateful for everything"  
  
She laughed as he blushed, but her laugh turned into gasps and then dry, violent coughs and she lurched forward and grabbed the nearest thing infront of her for support. The nearest thing happened to be Oliver, who held on to Nancy for dear life, he was petrified.  
  
The coughing ended and Nancy fell back into the chair, exhausted, and wiped the blood away from her mouth.  
  
She closed her eyes as the breath once again painfully filled her lungs.  
  
"Consumption" she said to his silent question. "Won't be long now pippin, and I'll be off into the fire and brimstone."  
  
With eyes, still closed she gave a tired smile to a horrified Oliver.  
  
"Nancy, come with me back to Pentonville, we can make you well. Dr. Losbyrne, he can-"  
  
"There ain't no cure for what I've got Oliver, besides I'm ready for death. I hear them you know. Their laughter, I hear Bill calling me." she still had her eyes closed and was now in a trance like state. "Nance, he says, you're a rum ol' girl, come over here where you belong." She sighed and smiled.  
  
"Oliver?"  
  
Nancy jumped at the unexpected voice, as did Oliver himself.  
  
"Rose I, we were just chatting-"  
  
"You've been up here for a good 30 minutes, I just wanted to see if you were alright."  
  
"Yes I'm fine." Oliver rose to his feet. "Nancy I must leave now, please reconsider my offer."  
  
"Thank you but no, I shall stay here with my ghosts."  
  
"I shall visit you, that is, if you would like me to"  
  
"I would young sir" Her eyes closed once more as she leaned back in here chair  
  
"Goodbye then Miss Nancy"  
  
"Goodbye Master Twist.  
  
He left the room and she heard him leave Jacob's Island, she glanced out the window at the young man who had changed her life so much, and prayed he would return, she did not want to be alone in her last days.  
  
  
  
Oliver walked towards the carriage.  
  
"Was that Miss Sikes? I thought she was murdered" Rose enquired, worried about Oliver's colour.  
  
"She was" he answered queitly and turned to the small window, seeing Nancy surrounded by the phantom faces of the past.  
  
  
  
  
  
1 Nancy's Nightmares  
  
She sat there, after Oliver had left, dreading the evening ahead.  
  
As the light faded from the room, Nancy became restless, waiting for the nightmare to begin. She sat there in the chair, images of Oliver as a young boy merged with that of the young man she had met today. She dozed of with his sorrowful blue eyes in her mind.  
  
It was the same every night. The light would slowly but surely fade, the shadows would come alive with the help of her imagination and Sikes would come up from the depths of Hell, forward from the shadows to haunt her untill the dawn broke.  
  
She woke with a jump.  
  
1.1 "Nancy"  
  
She glanced around the room, the shadows were dancing on the walls, turning into figures from her past.  
  
1.2 "Nancy."  
  
Her name was uttered once again, no more then a whisper on the wind.  
  
She moved from the chair to the bed, huddled with her back to the wall and waited for the inevitable.  
  
"You betrayed me!"  
  
The voice seemed to boom around the room, bounce of the walls and fill her head. The shadows came alive at that moment, closing in on her, Fagin Dodger, all of them were there, pointing at her, shouting at her, screaming as they swung from the gallows.  
  
She placed her hands over her ears, desperate to shut out the many screams that she seemed to cause.  
  
Then there he was, coming forth from the darkness, coming for her, blaming, accusing, torturing. She shut her eyes to the horrifying image of Bill, his neck still twisted from the fall.  
  
She wanted him to take her in his arms, to kiss her and tell her that he loved her.  
  
But his tortured screams of her betrayal echoed in her eyes and she cried out, begged him to stop, begged for forgiveness, untill she could beg no more, untill the breath left her lungs, untill blood once more filled her mouth.  
  
Only then, when she thought she had surely died, did he disappear, leaving Nancy sobbing for his soul untill morning broke. 


End file.
